Hollow-wall construction.



.e. w. MATHEWS & R. E. FINDLAY.

Houbw WALL cowsmucnom. APPLICATION FILED OCTLS. 1915.

Patented June 13, 1916 W/ TNESS TR .4 EV

HOLLOVF'WALL CONSTRUCTION.

Specification of Letters Patent. Patented June 13, 1916,

Application filed Getobcr 5, 1915. Serial No. 54,275.

To all whom it may; concern. Be it known that We, Gnonon VVALDRONliliATHEWS and RIoi-iAnn-Eowiuzns FINDLAY,

both citizens of the United States, and resi- "dents of Macon, county ofBibb and State oi l ieorgia, have invented certain new andusefulImprovements in Hollow-Wall Construction, of which the folloivingis a specifieation.

@112 inventidix relates in general to a built-up wall construction ofthe type Formed from finished hollow plastic blocks and particularlyrelates to such a Wall de signed to form a silo.

fine of the primary objects of our invention is to provide a silo whichwill be strong, durable, air and Water tight, which will possess neatuniform appearance and hunch. can be constructed at low cost. Withobject in view we provide an insulated Wall constructed from unitsformed of a single type of insulated dead air chambered blocics with theunits securely bound together, end to end, arranged in superimposedcourses and provided with horizontal reinforcements formed in site; anddesigned to meet the demands for diiierent strengths at different levelsof the Wall.

t is of primary) importance in silo construction that the contents ofthe silo be pro tected from air or moisture which might percolatethrough the Walls thereof either by reason of the character of theblocks forming the walls, by reason of the character of the jointsbetween the blocks, or by reason of cracks developing in the outer orinner faces of the Wall after it is constructed.

To insure a tight wall the blocks used are of plastic material vitrifiedto form the same practically impervious to both air and moisture. Eachblock is surrounded between its inner and OLlt8-1Sld6$ by a thickincased binding material which in setting 1 fills all possible openingsbetween the blocks and insures a perfectly tight joint.

To further minimize the possibility of leakage through the Wall, Whileretaining the advantages oi an an. insulation, the Wall is formed oi. amultitude of chambered blocks, with the chambers of each blockeffectively insulated from the chambers of the other blocks.

From. the standpoint of'economy and uniform appearance to the wall, itis a iurther lugs and in desideratum to form the same of a uniform typeof preformed and cured blocks designed to withstand strains incidentalto such walls.

In carrying out the invention itelfa s been found desii'able'to utilizetheztype of hollow block which is cored tl erthrough vertically toprovide one orniore air chambers opened at, top and bottom of the block.This type of block may be moldedieeonomically in large quantities andhas'all of its material disposed with advantage to oiler the greatestpossible resistance to vertical crushing strains. Preferably the Wallsand Webs of these blocks are made as thin as possible to save materialand to provide the contained air chamber of the largest possible volume.The binding material constituting the horizontal joints between theblocks is utilized to seal the air chambers.

Another object of the invention is to provide a hollow chambered silowall strengthened against lateral strains by solid bands extendingacross the open ends of the individual chambers and formed withouteffect ing the set of the superimposed preformed blocks. We attain thisobject by positioning the horizontal binder within channels formed inthe upper faces of the blocks of each course and giving the binder adepth sufiicient to form an interior girder of the desired strengthabout the silo. lyhile a plastic girder of this type may be siillicientadjacent the top of the Wall where internal strains are light, thiswould not be suflicient for the lower courses and accordingly anotherobject of the invention is to provide a construction designed to receiveany requisiti amount of metal reinforcementnecessary to withstand theinternal strains on the Walls at the difierent levels. The reinforcement is conveniently disposed in the mate rial forming the horizontalgirder as the Wall is laid, which material offers a protect ing coveringfor the same and provides sufficient/space for any usual type ornecessary amount of metal. without special provision for mounting thesame.

Various other objects and advantages of the invention will be in partobvious from an inspection of the accompanying drawpart will be morefully setforth in the following particular description of one form ofmechanism embodying pur invention, and the invention also consists in 2g a j 1,186,592

certain new and novel features of construction and combination of partshereinafter set forth and claimed.

Referring to the accompanying drawings: Figure l is a perspective viewof a portion of a silo wall illustrating a preferred embodiment of ourinvention; Fig. 2 is a vertical sectional view taken on the line 22 ofFig. 1; and Fig. 3 is a horizontal sectional view taken just above thelower horizontal filler course in Fig 1.

In the accompanying drawings. there is shown a concrete foundation bed 4upon which is positioned'a. novel type of wall which may be consideredas straight for the purpose of this disclosure, but to emphasizeitspeculiar adaptability to a circular silo construction it should beregarded as continuous, except for the possible door opening usual insilo constructions. The blocks 5- forming the wall are formed of curvedvitrified salt glazed material but may be of concrete or similar plasticmaterial designed for use in constructions of this charactor. The blocksarearranged end to end in'horizontal courses with the blocks preferablyarranged to break joint but such is not a necessary feature of theinvention and the blocks may be arranged in the wall in the manner bestsuited to take advantage of any peculiar staggered or keyed arrangement.The blocks are of a vertical hollow cored type including an outer wall 6and an inner wall 7, which walls in the blocks designed for circularsilo constructidn are concentrically disposed and have longitudinalradii to form the desired configuration of silo. The thin shelled blocksof this type are thoroughly fired in a manner not possi: ble with thethick walled blocks which are now necessary to give the requisitestrength to tall silo walls. The ends of the blocks are defined bytransverse end walls 9 and the walls of the blocks may be braced by aninternal tansverse web 8. The contiguous faces of the end walls ofadjacent blocks are dissimilar in shape so that when the side walls ofadjacent blocks are in contact or substantially in contact, a hollowcement receiving space 10 is formed vertically between the end walls ofthe adjacent blocks. A plastic filler 11 preferably of cement having aflowing-consistency is disposed within this space and constitutes thevertical binding joint between the adjacent blocks.

This vertical filler extends above and belowv the outlines of the blocksto unite with the horizontally d1sposed binding members .hereinafterdescribed to form an integral honey-combed structure formed in all?about the edges of the-blocks and within the outlines of their abuttingside walls.

An open top channel for the binding material forming the horizontaloints between adjacent courses is provided by spacing the upper edges ofthe web and end walls below the upper edges of the side walls of theblocks, a distance sufficient to give the requisite depths to the formedcourse or girder of plastic material between thepreformed block courses.In order to prevent any possibility of this filler material falling intoi the air chambers in the blocks, each block is provided with a bedplate 12, supported on the seat provided by the depressed web and endwalls. This plate has a length sufficient to cover the air pocket orpockets, but is less or between the edges of the plate and adjacent sidewalls of the block. In actual practice it has been found desirable tomake this member in the form of a flat thin sheet tin plate, the ends ofwhich are shaped to conform to the configuration of the end walls of theblock upon which they rest. It is understood, however, that these bedplates have no particular reinforcing functions and are designedprimarily to have a strength merely sufficient to support the fillermaterial while hardening and preferably are thin so as not to take upany more of the air space than is necessary.

A metal reinforcement 18 is embedded in the horizontal course of fillermaterial. This reinforcement is preferably under tension and, in thecase of silo construction is in the form of a continuous band encirclingthe all. \Vhile any type of reinforcement may be utilized theconstruction illustrated is provided with a twisted. metal bar which hasbeen found highly desirable in devices of this character, particularlydue to its tensile strength and to the ease with which it may be bent toshape'and to its bite in the filler material. In addition to theseadvantages the rods may be placed wherever desired across the width ofthe channel and toward the bottom of the wall more than one bar may beused, if desired, or bars of different strength or character may beused.

The blocks of each superimposed course are laid on the plastic filler ofthe course below and whatever of this material may be forced through theoints bet-ween the blocks is pointed off as is usual in building blockconstruction. The vertical joints are filled as previously described,the filling material uniting with the horizontally formed plastic courseforming a T therewith or in the cases where the blocks do not breakjoints forming a sol d cross therewith. The bed plates are positioned tocover the chamber, a filler is laid in the upper channel, the properproportion of metal is laid in place and sufficient binding materialadded to give the desired depth to the girder element. Course aftercourse of these blocks may be laid as described until the desired heightof structure is obtained after which it is capped as is usual with suchdevices.

By means of a device of this character all of the structural advantagesof a preformed vertically cored hollow block unit are re tained. Pouringthe plastic filling material between the end Walls ,of the preformedblocks provides a secure vertical joint free of air holes or otheropenings. It has been usual with devices of this character to use tiebars between adjacent blocks, but these tie bars are not regarded asessential with this construction and require an amount of metal out ofall proportion to their strengthening functions. The finished wall isformed in elfect of a honeycombed integral skeleton frame formed'ofhorizontal girders and vertical posts, with the openings formed there byinclosed by the blocks which go to make up the wall. As these blocks arecured and therefore free from any possible distortion or shrinkage, thewall stands as laid and is not affected by any possible shrinkage of theformed skeleton frame. It is noted that each block has a completelyclosed air chamber contained. withinits outlines. By this constructionair holes may eXtendthrough the inner or through the outer sides of eachblock, but the air will not penetrate to the interior of the silo unlessan opening happens to be in both the inner and outer sides of the sameblock. As this is very unlikely it is seen that a substantially moistureand air-proof wall is provided With high insulating properties due tothe dead air spaces throughout the wall.

The reinforcing material may be positioned at any place transversely ofthe in terior of the block and any number of the reinforcements of therod type may be used, depending upon the amount of metal necessary toconstitute an efficient reinforcement, but the blocks used do not haveto be modified in any way to accommodate the various amounts of materialin the reinforcement.

It must be noted that the strength of a wall so constructed does notrely particularly either-upon the strength of the blocks per se nor uponthe skeleton plastic formed framework but rather upon a skilfulcombination of these two features.

In order to obtain a thoroughly fired vitreous block it is necessarythat the walls thereof be designed as thin as possible but any weakeningol the block in this design is compensated in this case by the solidthrough the forming dies as'the openings therethrough are straight.

A further advantage of this construction is that it is merely necessaryto pour the plastic material into the vertical spaces between the blocksand along the open top channels at each course. terial can readilybet-amped into-place and its natural course will be to fill up allopenings and at the same time there is retained the vital element inthis entire construction, the insulated dead air spaces. In this case ofsilo walls the reinforcement is continuous about the structure with theportion thereof extending across the door opening modified in characterto form the usual door rungs.

While we have shown and described, and. have pointed out in the annexedclaims, certain novel features of our invention, it will be understoodthat various omissions, substitutions and changes in the form anddetails of the device illustrated and in its operation may be made bythose skilled in the invention.

Having thus described our invention, we

claim:

1. A wall construction including a pair of open top chambered blocksdisposed side by side and designed to be positioned at an anglehorizontally to each other in the wall 1 to form a wall of any desiredcurvature, each block provided With transverse end walls, the upperportions of which constitute supporting members positioned below theupper edges of the blocks, the supporting surfaces of the members ineach block being flat and contained in one plane, a pair offiat"retaining members, one for each block, positioned within theoutlines of its correlated block and designed to rest fiat on itscorresponding supl'iorting members to prevent air leakage across the endWalls betWee n-ihe retaining members and their suppoits, said retainingmembers having their adjacent ends spaced apart to form an opening"adapted to receive plastic material extending between the adjacent endsof the blocks, said retaining members being each substantially free ofany intentional reinforcing properties and designed to seal the open topof' its correlatedblock, and a formed plastic course surrounding theblocks within the outlines of the wall, so as to insulate the chambersof the blocks from I ing the portions thereof which are positioned abovethe chambers supported by said retaining members and held from fallingvertically into the chambers by the retaining members.

'2. A wall construction including a pair of open top cored chamberedblocks disposed side by side, each block provided With transverse endWalls, the upper portions of which constitutesupporting memberspositioned below the upper edges of the blocks, a pair of retainingmembers, one for each block positioned Within the outlines of itscorrelated block and designed to have a close fit on its correspondingsupporting members thereby to prevent air leakage across theend wallsbetween the retaining members and their supports, said retaining membersdesigned to have their adjacent ends ang-ularly d1sposed. and spacedapart so as to form an opening to receive a plastic material extendingbetween the adjacent ends of the blocks, said retalning members'designed to seal the open top of its correlated 25 reinforcing membersdisposed in said plastic material and spaced above the retainingmembers.

Signed Macon in the county of Bibb and State of Georgia this 2nd day of0ctober A. D., 1915.

GEORGE WALDRON MATHEWS. RICHARD EDWARDS FINDLAY. I

